ERIC Number: EJ1380223
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Apr
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-1539-0578
The Counts of "Dracula" and "Monte Cristo": Homonym Frequencies in Graded Readers
Kevin Parent; Stuart McLean; Brandon Kramer; Young Ae Kim
Reading in a Foreign Language, v35 n1 p48-71 Apr 2023
Graded readers are a great asset to learners acquiring the vocabulary of another language. Homonyms, on the other hand, are a recognized source of trouble for students with that same goal. Publishers of graded readers control the presentation of old and new words, but does this control extend to homonyms? Are only the word forms controlled for--in which case, the unrelated meanings of "match" ("a pairing" and "a stick for starting fire") would together constitute two uses of the word? Or would these tally as separate words which, semantically and etymologically, they are? A comparison of a 4.2 million-word corpus of graded readers with previous research on the distributions of homonymic meanings in general English reveals that the meanings presented to learners are frequently quite different to those in general-purpose texts.
Descriptors: Reading Materials, Vocabulary Development, Definitions, Etymology, Computational Linguistics, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Word Lists, Word Frequency, Language Processing, Native Language, Electronic Publishing, English, English (Second Language), Language Variation, Foreign Countries, Publishing Industry
National Foreign Language Resource Center at University of Hawaii. 1859 East-West Road #106, Honolulu, HI 96822. e-mail: readfl@hawaii.edu; Web site: https://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A